Potential
by MagicalPirate
Summary: The CIA saw Rodney McKay's potential even as a boy of fifteen. They have contacted him now with a warning. Can he endure the pain of his past and how will his friends react.
1. Stowaway

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of Stargate Atlantis……for now.

Summary: The CIA knew that Rodney McKay was an asset. Even as a boy they saw his potential and put it to use. Now as a man they come to him with a warning. The past may not be as easily buried as he hoped and with that past comes even greater struggles. Can he conquer what he had deemed lost from long ago? Can his team help him through what may be the biggest ordeal he has had to face on Atlantis?

Potential

Elizabeth Weir sat in her office seemingly immersed in a data pad when the hesitant knock on the door ripped her from her concentration. She looked up to see the stargate technician, Chuck, at her door.

" Doctor Weir, the Deadelus just appeared on sensors."

" Already! They weren't due back for another couple of days. Have they made radio contact as of yet?" Weir asked.

" No, but they are still a half hour away from the planet." Chuck replied.

" Thank you." Weir stated. Chuck nodded and exited her office. She watched as he went back to his work counsel then set her data pad down and stood to follow. The unexpected early arrival of the Deadelus could mean many things and most of those things involved bad, very bad, and as Rodney so eloquently puts it ' We are so screwed.' She left her office and took a moment to look over the balcony. Everyone was working and scurrying about in a way that reminded her of little worker ants, she knew they were all stressed out waiting for something to happen. Whether it be wraith or otherwise, living in this city was like holding your breath waiting for that inevitable plunge. She walked briskly to the control center of Atlantis and nodded to the familiar personnel donning its equipment.

" Doctor Weir, Colonel Caldwell has just made radio contact and wishes to speak to you." Chuck said.

" Put him through." She replied. As the radio clicked in response to her command and a asserting nod from Chuck she said, " Colonel! We weren't expecting you for another couple of days. Can I ask what the occasion is?"

" I'm afraid I can't discuss that on an open channel Doctor. Request permission to land." Colonel Caldwell replied.

" Permission granted." Weir stated. _This can't be good _she thought.

" I recommend that Doctor McKay and the rest of his team meet us in the docking bay." Colonel Caldwell stated.

" Understood." _Yep__ bad _she concluded. She could deduce that this had something to do with Rodney after all when have you ever heard of a Colonel documenting a team with the scientists name unless it was a science team. She clicked her radio as the channel to Caldwell closed. " Doctor McKay, Colonel Sheppard, Ronon , and Teyla please meet me in the docking area." She clicked off before any replies could be made. She had no time to deal with Rodney's complaints about how much work he had or Colonel Sheppard's questions. As she walked along the corridor to the docking bay her thoughts were reeling as to what Colonel Caldwell was about to tell them. His curt reply about not speaking on an open channel had her mind riddled with questions. _Was there another Trust operative on Atlantis? What could be important enough for them to push the engines to reach us? Why had she not been informed earlier if this matter was __of great importance? After all we__ still had weekly check-ins with earth. _She was so focused on these questions that she did not notice Colonel Sheppard come join her, so when he started speaking she nearly jumped ten feet in the air.

" Whoa sorry, didn't mean to startle ya." Sheppard said.

" That's okay, just thinking." She replied as she tried to control her heart rate.

" Hmm….so what's all this about?" He asked.

" I don't really know. The Deadelus arrived just minutes ago and Colonel Caldwell requested to land and that your team meet with us in the docking bay."

" He didn't say why?" Sheppard asked curiously.

" He stated that he couldn't discuss it on an open channel." She said and gave a hard glance at Sheppard. He nodded in understanding and his face became like stone as he probably ran through the same scenarios she went through just moments before. The Docking Bay doors came into view as did the rest of Sheppard's team. Rodney was waiting impatiently as he was seemingly ranting to both Ronon and Teyla about the numerous and distracting interruptions into his work. Weir only caught a few words as the doors opened and revealed Colonel Caldwell. Rodney abruptly cut off is rant as he noticed the doors and then spotted herself and Colonel Sheppard.

" Elizabeth, there you are. Mind telling me what's going on because I was in the middle of a very important experiment and if you expect any results from our being on Atlantis these constant inter.."

" Rodney." She cut off. " I am just as curious as you, Colonel Caldwell was just about to tell us what is going on." She stared at Rodney for a second until he deflated with irritation. Then all eyes turned to Caldwell in anticipation.

" Follow me." He said and began walking into the docking bay and boarding the Deadelus. Once on board he started talking is a low manner.

" Last week," he started. " we noticed some fluctuations in the power grid. It appeared that someone was tampering with the systems. More importantly the internal censors, however as you know the Asgard had these systems equipped with devices to forestall any tampering, but it appears that the saboteur tried to take these offline but in attempting to do so caused some energy fluctuations. Once we realized this I ordered a head count on the internal life signs detector. It appeared that we had a stowaway onboard. She was apprehended when her second attempt to sabotage the censors failed. " He explained calmly.

" Do we know how she got the ship without getting detected or why she's on the ship on the first place?" questioned Sheppard.

" So far our interrogation has yielded little success. We have only been able to get one thing out of her since she was placed in the brig." explained Caldwell.

"What is it?" She asked. They approached the doors leading to the ship's brig. Colonel spun around to look at everyone until his eyes rested on Dr. McKay.

" She demands to speak to Dr. McKay, only then will she explain her purpose, to him and only him." He replied.

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So what did you think? I know its short but it's just the intro and I promise it'll be mostly from Rodney's point of view for the rest of the story! Please Review! I don't care if you like it or hate it! Just Review!

All my luv!


	2. CIA

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of Stargate Atlantis…..yet.

Chapter Two: Explanations

" What!" Dr. McKay replied.

" When we tried to interrogate her she only responded with ' I will only speak to Dr. Rodney McKay.' Since then she has been silent. No matter what we say it has no effect on her." Caldwell explained.

" Do you even know who she is?" asked Elizabeth.

" No. There is nothing in the database to explain who she is or how she avoided sensors for so long. We did a sweep before we left and nobody was unaccounted for." Caldwell replied.

Rodney's mind raced with questions. _Who the hell could this be?_ He saw the other glancing at him expectantly. " What?" he snapped. " I don't know who the hell this could be! For all I know it could be a psycho coming to kill me. After all my brains would be worth.."

"Rodney." Elizabeth cut off his tyrant. " Why don't we go see who this woman is. If she will only speak to you then you're the only one who can find out."

" He can't go in there without an escort, Elizabeth." Sheppard cut in.

" Exactly. Who knows what she could do!" McKay replied nervously.

" I believe we are getting ahead of ourselves. Should we not see the women before we make such assumptions?" Teyla said.

" Teyla's right. Why don't we all go see her and see what she says?" Elizabeth said calmly.

Caldwell nodded and moved to open the brig door with his security card. He nodded to the marines standing guard and stepped inside. McKay and the others followed.

Rodney stopped short at what he saw. There in the very chair in front of him was her! He was sure timed stopped as he gaped openly. _How the hell….. _he thought. He stared at the chair and it all came flooding back. _No way….not __here…this can't__ be! _

The young women's head had snapped up at the sound of the door. She appeared to be in her late twenties early thirties and seemed none too pleased with her accommodations. She glared at them all, her eyes scanning each face until they rested on McKay. Her appearance immediately changed, the hard face of before morphing into soft eyes and a gentle smile with an emotion only to be described as relief. Her hands were handcuffed to the chair but that did not stop her from trying to get up.

" Rodney…" she started.

All eyes turned to McKay but his eyes only took in the person in front of him. The person who could not be here… the person that represented what he had run from all those years ago. His eyes turned cold at the memories and his voice spat the anger accompanied with those memories.

" What the _hell _are you doing here?"

Her face fell for a moment but then quickly turned into a smirk. " What no 'Hi, how're you! How have you been all this time' …..typical no gratitude."

" Gratitude! What the hell am I supposed to be thankful for?" he snapped viciously. "Now WHAT are you doing here!?"

" What do you have to be thankful for? Are you kidding! All those times I pulled your ass out of situations you got yourself into you should be damn thankful!" She shouted.

" Oh yeah, cause were all so impressed that you have half a brain lying in between your ears. I'm the one who had to come with some brilliant idea all the time while your lazy ass…."

" Um...McKay?" Sheppard's voice timidly tried to intercept.

"….sat on your fucking hands waiting for me. If you think…"

"MCKAY!" shouted Sheppard.

" What!" he snapped seemingly unaware of the people standing right behind him.

" Care to explain what is going on." Sheppard asked more calmly.

McKay turned to look at the confused stares of his teammates along with Dr. Weir and Colonel Caldwell. He turned back to the prisoner who was glaring daggers at him and seemed to deflate as he sighed.

" This is Dr. Alison Drella. She's a biomedical theorist and astrophysicist." He stated.

She nodded her head in acknowledgment of the introduction but her gaze still fixed on McKay.

" Would she like to explain what she is doing on my ship, Dr." Caldwell asked his eyes staring at the prisoner not hiding his suspicion.

" I'm afraid that's classified." Dr. Drella stated calmly.

" We all have top clearance." Stated Colonel Sheppard his face set in his usual smirk.

" You all have top military clearance." She clarified. " McKay's the only one with the proper clearance to hear what I have to say."

" I don't care if it's military or not I want to know what the hell you are doing on my ship!" Caldwell said.

" Well, I would have thought that was obvious…I needed to get to Rodney and this ship's the only way to get to him." She said coolly. " Now if you don't mind I would like to speak to him alone."

" How do we know you're not going to try anything?" Sheppard asked. He was trying to get a hold on the situation that was thus far being led way outside his realm of knowledge.

" Oh please, I'm handcuffed to a chair! What am I gonna do…bite him?" she sneered. Rodney felt his lips tug up at that. _Same old Ali _he thought. He would not let himself get distracted by that however, the situation was serious and he needed to make a decision. If he let the others walk out of here he would have hell to pay once Ali finished explaining what she was doing here. However he didn't know if he could stand them being in the room when his past was about to be displayed openly. He glanced back at his teams' faces and made up his mind.

" They're not going anywhere Ali." He said confidently.

Her brow furrowed as she stared at him. "You know this is classified information. I can't speak when they're in here." She said.

" You have two options at this point. One: you let them listen to whatever you came to tell me. Or Two: you came here for nothing and get to go back to your high and mighty bosses empty handed." He couldn't keep the bitterness out of his voice but he laid a determined stare at Dr. Drella.

After a few tense moments she finally sighed and asked, " Do you trust them that much?"

" Yes." He said without a moment's hesitation. While it was automatic it was also the complete truth. They had been through so many things together that he trusted them with his lives and he knew from countless instances that they trusted him with theirs.

She continued to stare at him as if searching for something until finally giving a nod of reluctant agreement.

" What I am about to tell you is classified under CIA district code 430879.She ignored the exclamation of "CIA!" from Sheppard and continued. "Under no circumstances can you divulge where you received this information outside this room." She waited calmly for everyone's nod in agreement before continuing. " I am sent here with a warning. Atlantis is in danger, there are four explosive devices planted throughout the city. We have no idea where they are planted or by whom. But we have received information that we have roughly 24 hours from now before all four devices go off simultaneously."

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Hey! Thank you guys so much for the reviews!!! I swear you'll receive more information in the next chapter. Hopefully I'll have it updated soon!


	3. the truth

Disclaimer: My attempt has appeared futile as the characters of Stargate Atlantis are not mine. But do not worry they will be soon…mwahahaha!

Chapter three: The truth

The room grew deadly silent as the tension in the room was almost tangible. Sheppard's voice was the first to break the silence.

" Four bombs on Atlantis? How is that possible?" He asked.

" There is an operative on Atlantis who is working for an organization called Synx. It's a branch off of the Trust but has been in formation since before the trust became as big of a threat as they are now. As far as we know they have not been infiltrated by the Goa'uld, deemed too unimportant. However they are a significant threat to Atlantis." She said.

Rodney felt his eyes bulge as he absorbed the information. He seemed to go two shades paler, if what she was saying was true they could be in huge trouble. Not only Atlantis but him personally. _This is bad….this is really, really bad!_

" Why would they want to destroy Atlantis?" Weir voice rang out through his internal triad.

" They don't. The bombs will not destroy Atlantis but they will cause significant damage and many lives if they were to go off. " She replied simply and then turned her gaze to McKay. " It is however merely a distraction."

" A distraction for what?" Ronon's voice came in.

" For them to sneak into the city and obtain what they were thwarted from having years ago." She said cryptically her eyes still fixed on McKay as though trying to communicate something through just that stare.

" Which is?" asked Sheppard impatiently.

" Me." Rodney supplied. All their gazes turned to him but he did look at either one of them. He needed to work this out. He needed….hell he didn't know what he needed.

" Yes." agreed Alison. " The bombs were to keep you busy while they snatched McKay from right under your noses."

" Why do they want McKay?" asked Ronon.

Instead of answering Ali stared at McKay until he closed his eyes and sighed. He turned to the others and motioned for them to come in further. He waited until the door behind them closed and nodded to the marines to take their leave. The marines glanced at Colonel Caldwell until he gave them a nod of affirmation and they headed out the door.

" When I was 12 I entered myself in the school science fair." McKay began.

" Doctor, what does this have to do with anything?" asked Caldwell.

" If you want to know why then I suggest you shut up and listen I only have a limited time since the bombs are set to detonate in twenty-four hours." Rodney replied coldly. He turned his gaze back to the others.

" As I was saying I was 12 when I entered into the science fair and I decided to try and prove myself with a over the top experiment." He stated.

" Over the top. Nice way to put it." Alison muttered.

McKay ignored the interruption and continued, " I decided to build an atomic bomb."

" What?" Weir gasped.

" Don't worry it was a working model. It did however draw attention." Rodney replied.

" No doubt." Sheppard said.

" Well the attention came mostly from the CIA. As I mentioned to Sheppard, this led to my first job. What I didn't tell him was that I took the job when I was sixteen." Rodney stated.

" What's the CIA?" questioned Ronon.

" Central Intelligence Agency. A part of the government that is responsible for gathering intelligence that might be of any threat to the nation." supplied Dr. Weir.

Ronon and Teyla both nodded in understanding and McKay took that as permission to continue. " Anyway, the CIA contacted me when I was sixteen. They needed my help with cracking a code that had been devised by the Synx to hide a weapon they were developing."

" They needed a sixteen year olds help? I find that hard to believe." Caldwell stated skeptically.

" Well, the code was similar to the one I designed in conjunction with the atomic bomb as a delivering mechanism. It was to be used to disguise a specific energy signature like that of a tell-tale nuke. " explained Rodney. " I had devised it so that it appeared to mask the radiation coming from the devise but really it was fooling all the computers and any other technological equipment that came in contact with it. The radiation would still be there but from any other standpoint then directly looking at the bomb it would appear to be invisible."

The stunned silence he got in return caused him to glance back at everyone to make sure they kept with the program. " What?" he asked finally

"You built a program to mask the signature of an atomic weapon when you were 12?!" came Sheppard's stunned reply.

" Well, when I built the weapon I felt it needed something added to it for creativity points." McKay shrugged.

" Creativity…right." Alison said rolling her eyes.

" Anyway, when I was brought in they had also found that the chemical in the weapon was of a specific design. Ali and I were able to hack into their systems and shut down the weapon before it could be launched." McKay explained.

" Bet they weren't too happy about that." Sheppard said.

" To say the least." Rodney replied. " After that happened though they seemed to disappear. Probably went underground to avoid detection."

He looked at Alison as she threw a questioning gaze at him. She could tell he was lying after all she had been there. It looked as though she would keep it to herself if the nod he got after a final glance was any indication.

" So they're here after twenty years for revenge on your sabotaging their deployment of the weapon?" Caldwell asked doubtfully.

" No, at least that's not the whole reason." Dr. Drella replied. " We think they have recently required a significant portion of the Atlantian database but are so far unable to use any of its knowledge because they don't recognize what half of it is. With Doctor McKay they would be able to use it to their advantage."

" Their advantage for what? What's their ultimate goal? World domination? … because I have to say that's a little too Dr. Doom if you ask me." Sheppard said.

" We don't know the full extent of their plans but we assume it's to create an off world base of their own. Trying to reap the benefits like the rouge NID operatives tried to do a number of years ago: stealing technology from who Atlantis considers allies." Said Alison.

" Stealing what though? We mainly have allies to trade for food and other supplies. We haven't come across many advanced societies due to the Wraith." Dr. Weir put in.

" There are still some though. They would probably begin with stealing the ZPM from M7G-677, the kid planet with the EM field. Then move to attack the planet where the new brotherhood of the fifteen reside." Ali said casually.

" This would lead to many lives being taken." Teyla responded.

" No doubt about that." Sheppard said.

" Ok, so what's the plan?" Weir asked looking around.

" I have orders to take Dr. McKay back to earth to be put in the protective custody of the CIA." Dr. Drella responded.

" Like hell you will." McKay snarled.

" Rodney…" she said in a patronizing tone, " You're not safe here. If they come here and not find you they'll probably just leave."

" Bull shit!" Rodney shouted. " You know as well as I do that if I'm not there for them to find they'll most likely destroy Atlantis!"

" Maybe." She said " but you're too great a risk to let fall into their hands."

McKay's face began to grow red from anger. " I ..don't…care." he said through clenched teeth. " I need to be here so that I can help them find the bombs or have you forgotten that there is FOUR of them!" he said vehemently.

She stared at him for a moment before continuing. " There's no point in arguing. I have my orders and I intend to follow them!"

" Your orders don't concern me. Plus, what are you gonna do being strapped to a chair." He said snidely.

She looked down at her wrist having momentarily forgotten her predicament. She turned to him her cheeks slightly flushed from anger and embarrassment. " McKay! What are you going to do when they come? Are you going to go with them and put Earth at risk or are you going to stay and put Atlantis at risk?" she asked.

He stared at her before turning his gaze towards his team and Dr. Weir. A moment of hesitation shaped his face for a moment before turning into a steal look of determination. He turned back to Dr. Drella and said, " Our best chance of beating these guys once in for all is in Atlantis."

She glared at him full on before turning to the others finally she sighed and nodded. " Fine, if you want to make a stand here then I can help you."

" Good." he said simply. He turned back to the rest, " So, everyone ready?"

Sheppard smirked " Wondering when you were going to include us."

" Feeling left out are we?" McKay snarked back.

" Alright gentlemen." Weir interrupted. " Let's get to work."

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Sorry it took so long to update!! I regret to tell you that it'll take longer for the next chapter because my family and I are goin to Europe for two weeks and my laptop is staying behind. Sorry! I tried to make it not too much of a cliffhanger so you all won't want to kill me…right? Right?

Please Review!

All my luv!!!


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